Early 2008 Mac Pro + ATI Radeon HD 4870 = Not working

You could try this.
http://rapidshare.de/files/45735520/MacOSX10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0drivers.pkg.html

As Luda suggested, you need the beta drivers from 10.5.7. since you are running it on 10.5.6. You can either install the drivers from the link provided, or wait for 10.5.7.

I downloaded this driver to get the new 4870 to work in my Mac Pro (early 2008). After the initial install Aperture and iMovie gave error messages about unsupported card, Call of Duty 4 would not run, and screen rotation for my monitor did not work. (Quartz Extreme disabled). After finding this workaround everything seems OKay. I spoke with Apple Tech and they are aware of the problem and the fix. Hopefully 10.5.7 will be released soon. Early Adopters Beware.

Like you, I received my HD 4870 XT2 yesterday. My first try was to plug it above my actual HD 2600XT. Both cards were recognized by Leopard 10.5.6 but no output from the DVI outputs of the 4870!

Second try, I removed my original 2600 and plug the 4870 into slot 1. Now I had my primary display working but I don't have any miniDVI adaptor to test the second output.

Aperture, Final Cut Express and my OpenGL favorite software "Starry Night Pro Plus" don't work at all!

Final Cut Express complain that it need at least 64M of VRAM and that my video card have only 0Mb!

After having called Apple service, we found out that all these softwares use either OpenGl or Quartz Extreme. By looking at the System Informations -> Graphic card / monitors, we can see that the "Quartz Extreme" is not supported! The technician suggested me to call ATI for a possible driver before they exchange my card.

So this morning, on the WEB, I was looking for a driver in Google, and here I am!

I am myself a technician and a UNIX admin. I chose Apple because over the time I found the Plug & Play they offer very attractive.

After having almost finished my animation movie, I chose to upgrade my video card to the most powerful one available for my Mac Pro. My first frustration was to wait 4 to 6 weeks before the delivery.

Now that I have it, after "only" 4 weeks, I have to say that I am very frustrated to realize that Apple accepted to sell me a product not even yet supported by their most recent OS!

Command Apple... That is not serious!

It's not like I bought a toy, it a professional product, your most valuable system!

I downloaded the beta drivers and it works very well. I would assume it will get even better once 10.5.7 but at least I got Open GL and Quartz Extreme working now. I would suggest you do the same thing.

First, I learned the hard way that you can use only one ATI Radeon 4870 in a MacPro. I ordered two, to support 2 monitors, and now use the 4870 + an Nvidia GT120. The 4870 is not only a double-wide card, it requires 2 cable connections for power - cables go to plugs next to PCIe slot 1. Apparently these are the only 2 power connectors on the motherboard in the area of the PCI slots.

Second, regarding drivers for the 4870, I too have been reading about 10.5.6 not supporting it, but it seems to be working OK in my machine. Maybe its crippled - don't know. But then out of the blue Friday AM (5-1-09), I got a call from Apple - informed me that «don't worry if your 4870 isn't working, we're about to release software and we shipped the 4870 too quickly.» I asked if it was just a patch or was it 10.5.7, as the rumor-mill suggested. The Apple guy hemmed and hawed and said he understood it to be 'part of Leopard', and it would be out soon. I interpret this to mean a release of 10.5.7 sometime Friday 5-1-09. I could be wrong now. But I don't think so.

I read over on macintouch.com that at least one person that recently received the card received a phone call from Apple saying they should wait until 10.5.7 comes out before installing it.

Here is the link: http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macpro/index.html

Apparently the cards were sent out by mistake and were suppose to wait until 10.5.7 was available.

-kpluck

I, too, received a telephone call from Apple about thirty minutes ago advising me that they inadvertently shipped out the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card before the release of the new software update. The representative went on to say that the update would be available soon. I said, "you mean 10.5.7 ?" He replied, "yes, that's correct."

Last night I had read this thread and downloaded the beta driver for the 4870, but decided to wait until today to install the card. I assume from the phone call from Apple that the software update will be available today sometime.

Here is the report posted at MacInTouch to which Kaplucker refers:

"Graphics

Brian MacManus

I received an Apple ATI Radeon 4870 card for the MacPro yesterday after a 2 month wait, and yesterday evening about 6 PM, I got a call from Apple Tech Support in Austin, to apologize for the fact that the new card will not work properly till Apple releases OS 10.5.7, as it is inclusive of the drivers necessary to make it work. The early 2009 iterations of the MacPro with the bundled ATI 4870, has a special build of OS 10.5.6 that has the drives already. This only effects us that have the 2008 MacPro
I have to say good work for the proactive stance on Apple's part. So for those that have received the card ( Apple part number MB999ZM/A ), you will want to delay installing for a few days until Apple releases 10.5.7."

Message was edited by: Existus

I also got the "sorry we shipped you a card without the software ready" call. Luckily I haven't installed my card yet. Hopefully 10.5.7 will be ready today! I've got an event to edit in Aperture!

Fly By Night Graphics, Ltd.
South Saint Paul, MN 55075
http://www.FlyByNightGraphicsLtd.com

It is strange I had to come here to see what probably happened with my HD 4870. I received the shipping notice, tracked it, then about an hour before delivery it showed up on FedEx as "refused". A call to FedEx revealed that the delivery had been ordered stopped by Apple.

Since they had already charged by credit card I called the Apple store. They didn't seem to know what was going on (tried to tell me I refused the package) and almost 24 hours later have still not been able to tell me what is going on.

After reading this I'm assuming the stopped any shipments they could. You would think that the Apple Store folks would have been aware of an issue this significant.

To all here having problems:

For now, since 10.5.7 is probably going to be postponed further, if you want to use your 4870, you might as well download the beta drivers, and install.

To alleviate any problems when 10.5.7 comes (whenever that is), just do a clone backup of your system with a vanilla 10.5.6 (no drivers installed) and keep it separate. When 10.5.7 releases, revert back to that one. In the meantime though work can be done with the beta drivers.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/30/applelands_xbox_boss_mac_os_x_10_5_7_999_macbook_airdeal.html

Hi again,

It was funny to read all your answers on my iPhone while away from my computer. I could have reply on the iPhone but I preferred to wait to give you all the procedure I used to install the beta driver successfully this morning.

To start, I found this link:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=155477

and followed the "4870 INSTRUCTIONS", starting like suggested by doing the "First, follow the 4850 INSTRUCTIONS above"... (See the link)

I would like also to specify that I did this without having installed the card physically yet. So I kept my HD 2600 in the computer, followed all the steps excepted for the step 3:

3. Reboot with -f -v (kextcache/verbose mode)

There is no -f nor -v switches available for the reboot command at the shell prompt. I simply rebooted as usual "Pomme -> Redémarrer".

After the reboot, all my software was still working as expected with my HD 2600 card, meaning that these steps are specific and active only for the HD 4870 when it's detected at boot-up.

You may have to Google for the string "Kext" in order to get the application to install the file ATY_Motmot.kext. For your information, ATY_Motmot filename is the same string as the one found under "System Information ->PCI cards" under "Name".

I get:

ATI Radeon HD 4870:
Name: ATY, Motmot

The article is not clear regarding where to find the OpenGL.framework to backup before installing the downloaded one. I found mine under:

/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework

After having shutdown the computer, just after the reboot that proofed everything was ok, I removed the original HD 2600 card and put back the new HD 4870 and boot up...

Then I check the "System Information" and found both "Quartz Extreme" and "Core image" supported!

I launched Aperture, got it!

I launched Final Cut Express, got it!

I launched Starry Night Pro Plus, got it! Then I checked the OpenGL settings in Starry Night Pro PLus and activated both options:

Use shaders where available
Use AllSky shader (Not compatible with all hardware)

When I was doing these actions with my original HD 2600 card, the software was giving me a warning that my hardware did not support these options and that it could crash.

This time, with the HD 4870, it accepted my settings and give me back a very beautiful blue sky with much more shades!

So in conclusion, it works very smoothtly with my system and I am writing this with two monitors, having bought the MiniDP to DVI adapter this afternoon 😉

I am happy!

P.S.: A girl from Apple support called me back this afternoon regarding my problem. She was very happy two when I told her that I did apply the beta driver and that it was working very well...

Good luck and best regards...

Realizing that the awaited 10.5.7 update would not arrive via Software Update on Friday (01 May 09), I finally gave in and installed the new ATI HD 4870 graphics card in my Mac Pro.

I had already downloaded the beta driver for this card from the link provided in an earlier post above ( http://rapidshare.de/files/45735520/MacOSX10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0drivers.pkg.html ). I inserted the card into slot 2. Also, I had to remove one of the port access covers (the one directly above slot 2), otherwise the card did not fit flush in the back where the DVI and Mini-Display plug-ins are. This would have prevented replacing the PCI bracket. The rear of the graphics card has a vented part which takes up the area where the other removed port access cover was.

Once I was finished with the installation, I plugged in the Mac and started it up. Everything works fine!

I also got the HD 4870 delivered to my home and found a message yesterday from Apple about the missing software. They guy said in the voice mail that the software needed to operate the card is not yet available and that they would call back when its safe to install it. He also said the software will be released 'shortly'... lets hope its just a couple of days.